CU9: Catalogue Access

The CU9 is the last DPAC coordination unit, in charge of the design and implementation of the Gaia archive. It was created in 2013. CU9 manager, Xavier Luri, belongs to our team. We are involved in several working packages inside CU9, as validation tasks, educational and outreach activities or science enabling applications. Previously to CU9 creation, the Gaia Archive Preparation (GAP) Working Group was created and we were also deeply involved in It.

The manpower is distributed in several working groups called work packages. Each work package covers an essential type of job for the good completion of the objectives, the final Gaia Archive and its services. Additionally, ehach work package is divided in subpackages called working units focusing each one of them in specific goal and thus distributing the work more efficiently according the knowledge of each of its members.

WP910 – MANAGEMENT

WP910 is in charge of the overall coordination and management of CU9 and coordination with the rest of DPAC. WP910 is responsible for creating and maintaining the overall plan towards the Gaia catalog releases. Xavier Luri is also the manager of this package, assuring with the rest of its members all the coordination efforts are done efficiently.

WP920 – DOCUMENTATION

This work package is in charge of setting the DPAC standards, guidelines and templates for all the documentation of the CU9 products. Each work package is responsible for developing and writing the documentation related to its field of work following those standards and guidelines described before.

WP930 – ARCHIVE ARCHITECTURE

The archive architecture package is the one responsible to build up all the base systems and services for the Gaia Archive. Their main goal is to dessing and develop the core services and infrastructure to host the data from Gaia, which include databases and access services among them, and to be used by the rest of the work packages to develop their respective technical and scientific tools and procedures around it. This work package is held at DPAC.

WP940 – VALIDATION

The WP940 is the one entrusted in the detection of errors and anomalies in the Gaia data (such as effects of contamination, check of parameter ranges, out-liers, etc) before producing the final Gaia Archive for public use and be able to correct them. The use of statistical tools and comparison with other astrometric catalogues is heavily used among other methods for the validation of the data. Our team in Barcelona contributes in a significant number of activities developed by WP490, more specifically in the folloing working units:

WP950 – OPERATIONS

The Operations work package is entitled of monitoring, maintaining and provide scientific, technical and user support for all the systems and data regarding the archive. This also includes simulations of data that is still pending at certain part of the mission and auxiliary data for the main data block. Raúl Borrachero from our team in Barcelona is involved with the simulations from Gaia Object Generator (GOG) and Gaia Analysis Tool (GAT) support for the working unit WP958 – Simulations.

WP960 – EDUCATION AND OUTREACH

As its name suggests, the WP960 is entitled of showing to all the public the goals and whereabouts of the Gaia mission, the possibilities of its results, how the mission was developed and performed until the beginning, its current state, etc. It involves all kind of media and platforms, from press articles, conferences and talks to documentaries, animated movies, merchandising, brochures, etc. It is essential the work and collaboration of each representative in their respective countries. In Spain, our team in Barcelona is contributing very actively in such activities with various documentary movies, radio talks, TV shows, conferences, etc. The UB personnel involved in those activities are Eduard Masana, Lola Balaguer, Josep Manel Carrasco, Xavier Luri, Cesca Figueras and Jordi Torra.

WP970 – SCIENCE ENABLING APPLICATIONS

The goal of the WP970 is to provide the user of the Archive the tools to perform advanced data mining and data treatment that involves large amounts of data and complex scenario situations. Within the scope of the objectives of this work package is included the setting of an architecture for Big Data management and data mining, cross-matching large amounts of data with external catalogs and science alerts from the upcoming data along the Gaia mission.

One of the main tools used both for visualization and advanced data access tools is Topcat, a well known and widely used statistic and visualization tool for astrophysics. Its main developer Mark Taylor is member of both Visualization and Science Enabling Applications work packages in order to adjust Topcat to the needs of the Gaia Archive for those purposes.

The UB contributes to this package in the WP973 – Data mining. Francesc Julbe, Xavier Luri and Raúl Borrachero are involved in this working unit. Francesc Julbe is also the manager of the WP973 working unit.

WP980 – VISUALIZATION

The WP980 Visualization will procure, construct and integrate advanced visualization tools to enable a global exploration of the Gaia archive. This includes the interface services for the user, the visualization infrastructure needed for the rendering of data, data selection and other advanced cases.

GENIUS

Gaia European Network for Improved User Services (GENIUS) is designed to boost the impact of the next European breakthrough in astrophysics, the Gaia astrometric mission. GENIUS is aimed at significantly contributing to the development of this archive based on the following principles: archive design driven by the needs of the user community that will scientifically exploit the Gaia results; provision of exploitation tools to maximize the scientific return; ensuring the quality of the archive contents and the interchangeability with existing and future astronomical archives; cooperation with the only other two astrometric missions in the world, Nano-JASMINE and JASMINE (Japan); and last but not least, the archive facilitates outreach activities.